In Defense of the NYT's 'Greatest Songwriters' List

The public outrage was inevitable. The New York Times Magazine published a list of the 30 greatest living American songwriters. Two hundred and fifty music insiders submitted ballots. Six Times music critics and writers sorted through it all to get to 30. For Wesley Morris, it was both daunting and thrilling. Luminaries like Bonnie Raitt, George Clinton, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Mariah Carey submitted ballots. How to honor those submissions while narrowing down and exercising a critic’s judgment? Nearly 6,000 comments later, one thing is clear: Everybody’s a critic. Many are asking the nagging question, “How can you leave out so-and-so?!” Our critics included! So, Wesley invites a few of the project’s participants, Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, the hosts of “Popcast,” and Sasha Weiss, a deputy editor of The Times Magazine, to rehash it all out.

You can listen to In Defense of the NYT's 'Greatest Songwriters' List online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

In Defense of the NYT's 'Greatest Songwriters' List is an episode from Still Processing by The New York Times.

This episode is 01:01:38 long.

This episode was published on May 7, 2026.

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